Diageo's Spirit of Progress (Positive Drinking) team have set their sights on reaching 5 million people globally by 2030 with activations which prompt audiences to change their attitudes around driving after drinking alcohol. Research around road safety campaigns has found that individuals often dismiss fear-based messaging as irrelevant or lacking credibility (Stead et al., 2004). For this reason, Diageo & AnalogFolk Group realised we had to move away from traditional public safety campaigns and opt for a more innovative approach to connect with our target audience via a ‘lean in’ activation in order to shift attitudes.
Whilst raising awareness over an issue like drink-driving is important, we wanted to go a step further than merely educating individuals about the dangers of driving under the influence and meaningfully shift attitudes through our work. We determined our success by asking people how confident they felt in their own abilities to drive after a few drinks and their general assessment of how dangerous drink-driving can be. Users responded to these questions via a 7-point scale both before and after engaging with our experience. A positive attitudinal shift was defined by a user moving 1 point along the scale when answering the post-survey.
NHTSA data shows that drivers between the ages of 21-34 accounted for 57% of all fatal alcohol-impaired crashes in 2024 and that men are four times more likely to be involved in a crash whilst under the influence. Most of these individuals will have known beforehand that drink-driving is dangerous, but knowledge alone is rarely enough to change behaviour. Emotions often have a stronger influence on our actions than facts, especially when alcohol affects decision-making. Alcohol impairs both body and mind, making it difficult to accurately judge our ability to drive. This insight shaped our strategy: the best driving decisions are made when sober.
Our discovery phase showed that a traditional drink-driving campaign might be flat-out ignored by our audience, failing to change attitudes effectively. We needed an innovative and personalised approach that our audience would want to engage with, leaving a lasting impression before they even enter a bar. We chose to create an experience that evoked strong emotions, like surprise and enjoyment, to better link knowledge with long-term decision-making; rather than relying on fear-based messaging, our target audience is already adept at screening out.
To achieve this, Diageo and AnalogFolk Group created “Sober vs Drink Driving” - a series of five minigames highlighting the difference between driving sober and driving under the influence.
Each game allows players to test skills like attention levels, reaction times & braking speeds. To demonstrate the effects of alcohol on these abilities, as you play, there is a second avatar playing alongside you. This ‘phantom’ player is modelled on your own performance in the game if you had consumed 2-3 beers before starting, visually demonstrating the critical difference between how accurate you are when driving sober vs driving after drinking.
After each game, players see a summary of their results as well as the much poorer results of their 'drunk self'. This salient on-screen comparison reinforces the message about the dangers of drink-driving without the need to ‘go preachy’ via a PSA. The game’s design, inspired by futuristic racing games and films like Tron, uses bright, simple graphics to keep the focus on the player’s own performance and the worsening performance of their drunk self.
Since the games launched in December 2023, they have been introduced in seven regions and four languages. We've also created a physical version at The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, visited by 1.5 million people each year. Our initial pilot of 3 iPads on podiums has been so successful that this is currently being expanded to a dedicated room for the gaming experience, demonstrating Diageo’s commitment to their 2030 goals.
To encourage safe decisions after drinking, we partnered with Uber Korea to offer $40,000 in Uber vouchers to those who completed the game, promoting the use of rideshares over drink-driving.
Since its launch in December 2023, “Sober vs Drink Driving” has achieved remarkable success, drawing 245,000 site visits primarily through organic discovery. Our innovative approach, which taps into emotional responses, has significantly shifted user attitudes with over 40% of those who initially had high confidence in their ability to drive after drinking experiencing a positive change in their perspective on this front.
This success was further amplified by our partnership with Uber Korea, which produced 1.1 million impressions through an in-app banner ad and a strong 1.13% click-through rate.
At the Guinness Storehouse, user engagement was exceptionally high. Observations and feedback revealed that many visitors were eager to keep playing after their initial session, with groups competing for high scores and discussing how their reaction times would be impaired by alcohol. Participants described the experience as "really makes you think," reflecting the deep, critical engagement we aimed to achieve.
Marguerite Cremin, Global Head of Positive Drinking, Diageo commented: “Sober vs Drink Driving was our first foray into relating to our core target audience about the dangers of drink driving through gamification. The success of this pilot in changing attitudes has given us the confidence to scale and invest in Sober vs Drink Driving to ensure that a wider audience has access to the experience.”
